Means for starting internal combustion engines



Oct. 24, 1961 G. l, WOOD, JR., ET AL 3,005,449

MEANS FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed June 27, 1960 2Sheets-Sheet 1 2 M Jnve Pars GeomeAJM ood Jr.

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W1 mess y I wQl-Forngs Oct. 24, 1961 G. l. WOOD, JR., ET AL 3,005,449

MEANS FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed June 27, 1960 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Gear (LA.WOO1 Jr. mi m Filed June 27, 1960, fi er. No.38,960 Claims. (Ci. 123--1'79) This invention relates to and means forstarting internal combustion engines and more particularly to thewinding up of the spring starting means of internal combustion enginesused on wheeled vehicles such as lawn mowers, lawn sweepers, gardencultivators and like.

In recent years most maufacturers of small internal combustion enginesfor use on equipment such as lawn mowers have discarded the direct ropepull starting means. instead they equip the engine with a windablespring operatively connected to the engine, and which when released froma wound condition will spin the engine and thus start it. The winding upof the spring may be accomplished by the manual movement of a crank arm,lever pull cable or like. However, regardless of the manual means forwinding the spring, much labor and time is expended to wind the springto its maximum tension.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of our invention is to providean easily operated means Winding the starting spring of internalcombustion engines.

A further object of this invention is to provide a device for thewinding of the starting spring of internal combus tion engines that maybe actuated by and during the operation of the engine.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a means forwinding the starting spring of wheel supported internal combustionengines that may be accomplished merely by the pushing of the vehicleover a supporting surface such as a lawn, Walk or like.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a device forwinding engine starting means that is safe to operate.

Still further objects of our invtntion are to provide a means forwinding the starting spring of internal combustion engines that iseconomical in manufacture and durable in use.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the Ourinvention consists in the construction arrangements, and combination, ofthe various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed outin our claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of our device installed on a lawn mower; I

FIG. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the set controlcable;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the upper portion of a lawn mower using ourspring winding means and with the same operatively connected foraccomplishing the winding phase;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of our devices installed on a power lawn mowerand more fully illustrates its construction; and

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the control lever means.

In these drawings we have used the numeral to generally designate anordinary lawn mower having the usual internal combustion engine 11. Thelawn mower is supported by wheels 12 and is forwardly propelled over theground surface by the internal combustion engine. The engine has theusual spring starter 13, which is operatively disengageably secured tothe crankshaft of the internal combustion engine 11 thereby enabling thestarter means atone 13 to turn over and start the engine. The numeral 15designates the spring winding shaft of the spring starter. The springactuated starter is released for starting the engine by the usual arm16. In most instances a lever 17 is pivoted near its center to thehandle portion 19 of the mowing machine, and this handle is connected tothe arm 16 by a cable means 2%. When the lever 17 is pulled to the rearas shown in FIG. 5, the wound spring is released from its catchcondition and thereby rotates and starts the motor. When the lever 17extends directly laterally outwardly or is swung to a forward position,the catch means of the spring starter will be in position to prevent thewind-up spring from unwinding. It is to such equipment that we installour mechanism and which we will now describe.

, The numeral 21 designates a pulley wheel or like secured on the innerside of the right motor powered traction. wheel 12. The numeral 22designates a vertical support shield extending upwardly from the lowerchassis frame of the lawn mower. The numeral 23 designates a horizontalshaft extending between the engine and the upper portion of the shield22. The spring wind-up shaft 15 extends through the shield 22 as shownin FIG. 4. Rotatably mounted on the spring wind-up shaft 15 is a pulleywheel 24. This pulley wheel 24 is yieldingly secured to the shaft 15 byclutch means. This clutch means consists of a pin depression 25 in thehub of the pulley wheel 24, a pin 26 extending transversely through theshaft 15 and capable of entering and engaging the depression 25. The pin26 is yieldingly held in the hub depression 25 by coil spring 27embracing the outer end portion of the shaft 15, having one end engagingthe pin 26 and its other end engaging the nut 29 threaded on the outerend of the shaft 15. By this arrangement of parts the pulley wheel 24will be yieldingly connected to the shaft 15 but will be permitted toslip on the shaft 15 after the coil spring of the starter has beenmaximum wound. Any rotation of the pulley wheel 24 after the spring hasbeen wound up will produce a warning clicking sound by the pin 26passing over the depression 25 in the hub of the pulley wheel 24. Thenumeral 30 designates an idler pulley wheel rotatably mounted on theshield 22 and positioned to the rear of the pulley wheels 21 and 24 asshown in FIG. 1. The numeral 31 designates an endless belt looselyembracing the pulley wheels 21, 24 and 30. The numeral 32 designates anarm having its forward end portion rotatably secured to the shaft 23.The extreme forward end of the arm 32 extends forwardly'beyond the shaft23 and is connected to one end of a coil spring 33 which has its otherend connected to the chassis of the mower. The numeral 35 designates apulley wheel rotatably mounted on the rear end portion of the arm 32 andwhich is capable of engaging the outer side of the endless belt 31 at apoint between the pulley wheel 24 and pulley wheel 30. By thisarrangement of parts, when the pulley wheel '35 is in an elevatedposition, by the action of the spring 33 the endless belt 31 will beloosely and ineffectively embracing the pulley wheels 21, 24 and 30.With the endless belt in such loose condition, the traction wheel 12 mayrotate freely and without rotating the belt 31. However, if the rear endof the arm 32 is depressed by any means, it will tighten the belt 31 andif and when the lower wheel 12 is rotated, the shaft 15 will be rotatedthus winding up the starter spring of the engine. Any suitable means maybe used for effecting the lowering of the hinged arm 32. In the drawingswe take advantage of the fact that the handle portion 19 of the lawnmower is pivotally secured to the chassis of the mower as shown inFIG. 1. The numeral 36 designates a downwardly extending projection onthe arm 32. The numeral 37 designates a downwardly and rearwardlyextending arm having its forward end pivoted to the projection 36. Inthe rear end portion of the arm 37 is a longitudinal slot 39 whichslidably embraces a pin 49 on the handle 19 above its pivot point asshown in FIG. 3. This slot 39 communicates with a rear vertical slot 41.The numeral 42 designates a ledge on the center top of the arm 37.Connected to the lever 17 is a control cable having the case housing 43and the core rod 44. This control cable is secured to the lever 17 atthe opposite side of its pivot point where the cable control means 20 issecured to the lever 17 as shown in FIG. 5. The core rod 44 of the cable(and which is the se cable control) extends loosely through the ledge 42to the spring starter 13. Embracing this rod 44 and to the rear end ofthe ledge 42 is a cylinder 45 also embracing the forward end of thehousing 43 as shown in FIG. 2. The numeral 46 designates a coil springin the cylinder 45 having its forward end engaging the forward end ofthe cylinder 45 and its rear end engaging the forward end of the housing43. By this arrangement of parts when the lever 17 is moved forwardly tothe set position, the forward end of the flexible housing 43 willyieldingly engage the ledge 42 thereby yieldingly raising the rear endof the arm 37. With the handle 19 in a lowered position as shown bybroken lines in FIG. 1, the pin 40 will engage the vertical slot 41.With the parts in contact with each other and with the forward end ofthe cable housing 43 'yieldingly exerting pressure on the ledge 42, thehandle 19 will be elevated and the rear end of the arm 32 will belowered thereby bringing the pulley wheel 35 downwardly and thustightening the endless belt 31. With the endless belt so tightened, anyrotation of the wheel 12 will cause the shaft 15 to rotate. Therefore,to wind up the spring starter, it is merely necessary to place the lever17 in the set position and move the mower a few steps across the lawn,driveway or like. After the slip clutch indicates that the starterspring has been wound up, the lever 17 is placed in the neutral positionas shown in FIG. 5. This relieves yielding pressure on the ledge 42, thearm 37 will swing downwardly and the handle member 19 can be moved up ordown without affecting the arm 32 that carries the pulley wheel 35. Whenit is desired to start the engine, it is merely necessary to move thelever 17 to the g position. This releases the catch means of the starterand the wound up spring will effectively spin the internal combustionengine and start it.

In the drawings we show our device installed on an ordinaryself-propelled lawn mower. This means that the traction wheel 12 will beat times rotated by the engine 11. Therefore, it is possible while thelawn mower is being used to place the lever 17 in the set position andpermit indirectly the winding of the starter spring by power from theengine. The lawn mower will, therefore, have its spring starter alreadywound up the next time it is desired to use the mowing machine. Even,however, if the spring starter has not previously been wound up byengine power, it is a most easy matter to push the lawn mower a fewsteps to wind up the starter. This can be done by even a child. Perhapseven more important, however, is that when the engine is actuallystarted, the operator is at a safe distance therefrom, i.e., in thevicinity of the handle bars of the mowing machine.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of ourmeans for starting internal combustion engines without departure fromthe real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention tocover by our claims, any modified forms of structure or use ofmechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within theirscope.

We claim:

1. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporating saidchassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-upspring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a wheel secured tosaid first wheel, a wheel on said wind-up shaft of said starter, anendless member loosely embracing the wheel that is on said first wheeland the wheel on said wind-up shaft, and means for tightening saidendless member on said two wheels whereby when said first wheel isrotating it will rotate said wind-up shaft.

2.- In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting saidchassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-upspring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a wheel secured tosaid first Wheel, a wheel on said wind-up shaft of said starter, anendless member loosely embracing the wheel that is on said first wheeland the wheel on said wind-up shaft, and means for tightening saidendless member on said two wheels whereby when said first wheel isrotating it will rotate said wind-up shaft; said endless member being inthe form of an endless flexible belt.

3. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting saidchassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-upspring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a wheel secured tosaid first wheel, a wheel on said wind-up shaft of said starter, slipclutch means imposed between said wheel on said wind-up shaft and saidwind-up shaft, an endless member loosely embracing the wheel that is onsaid first wheel and the wheel on said wind-up shaft, and means fortightening said endless member on said two wheels whereby when saidfirst wheel is rotating it will rotate said wind-up shaft.

4. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting saidchassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-upspring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a wheel secured tosaid first Wheel, a wheel on said wind-up shaft of said starter, anendless member loosely embracing the wheel that is on said first wheeland the wheel on said wind-up shaft, an arm operatively pivoted to saidchassis, a wheel rota-tably mounted on said arm capable of engaging andtightening said endless member on said two wheels, a hinged handle onsaid chassis, and a linkage connecting said handle to said arm.

5. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting saidchassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a windupspring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a wheel secured tosaid first wheel, a wheel on said wind-up shaft on said starter, anendless member loosely embracing the wheel that is on said first wheeland the wheel on said wind-up shaft, an arm operatively pivoted to saidchassis, a wheel rotatably mounted on said arm capable of engaging andtightening said endless member on said two wheels, a hinged handle onsaid chassis, and a disconnectable linkage connecting said handle tosaid arm.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS932,735 Willard Aug. 31, 1909 1,031,134 Markmann et al. July 2, 19121,130,059 Brewer Mar. 2, 1915 2,760,377 Critchfield Aug. 28, 1956

